A. E. van Vogt (V2) (last name pronounced "van VOTE") was known as "Van" to his friends. He was a Canadian-born SF writer who was one of John W. Campbell's discoveries which ushered in the Golden Age of Astounding. He moved to LA in the mid-40s and lived there the rest of his life. Besides being a major writer he was active fannishly in LASFS the early days. His novel, Slan had an enormous impact on fandom, with many fans seeing themselves as slans.

He was married to E. Mayne Hull, also a writer of SF and fantasy. They collaborated on Out of the Unknown (1948) and Planets for Sale (1954). In her own right Hull wrote the "Artur Blord" series for Unknown.

He always had a taste for the scientifically dubious (he was heavily influenced by Alfred Korzybski), but his career went into eclipse when he turned to Dianetics in the early 50s, and did not really recover when he again took up writing in the 60s. On the other hand, his story "Far Centaurus" is still cited today in scientific work.